Leonardo da Vinci was a prolific artist and scientist. His intricate anatomical illustrations informed the structure of his most famous painting - the Mona Lisa. It is a painting of an ordinary woman that has inspired extraordinary...

On May 2nd, 1808, Spanish citizens rose up against the occupying French forces. The next day, the French struck back at dawn. Hundreds of Spanish citizens were rounded up and shot. When Ferdinand VII regained power, Goya requested...

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes began working as a court painter for King Charles III of Spain in 1786. He painted mainly portriats and was well-known for his romantic style. His artistic style turned darker, however, when his...

In the early 1800s, the French invaded Spain and overthrew Ferdinand VII. Goya initially supported the French invasion, hoping they would restore democracy and end the inquisition but the reality of living through war affected Goya...

The Black Paintings (Las pinturas negras) are often considered to deptic insanity and Goya's own struggles after losing his hearing. But is that an accurate understanding of these paintings? What is the context of the The Black...

It is impossible to know for sure who is depicted in Goya's Black Paintings, but there is evidence to suggest that the man in Two Old Men is Goya himself. Goya was a great admirer of the painter Diego Velázquez and this painting...

The National Gallery in London is using high technology to digitally record its collection of Western European paintings. Through a partnership with Hewlett Packard, the gallery can create accurate reproductions of the paintings, closely...

Emily Neumeier University of Pennsylvania The Liberation of Manisa (ca. 1960) by Cemal Tollu serves as a case study for investigating the attitudes towards citing and assimilating European painting in Turkey's art historical discourse....

The Renaissance was a cultural revitalization that spread across Europe, and had repercussions across the globe, but one smallish city-state in Italy was in many ways the epicenter of the thing. Florence, or as Italians might say,...

Europe was in transition politically and culturally at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, we're looking at the dawn of modern science, and the rise of Modernism in the arts, especially in music, dance, and visual arts. We'll look...

The Renaissance was a cultural revitalization that spread across Europe, and had repercussions across the globe, but one smallish city-state in Italy was in many ways the epicenter of the thing. Florence, or as Italians might say,...

Francisco Goya created The Black Paintings on the walls of his secluded farmhouse, far from the eyes and politics of Madrid. The fact that he created these 14 paintings as frescos rather than the usual canvas and oil paint indicates...

The Black Paintings series by Francisco Goya is dark and haunting overall, but a few of the paintings are particularly grim. We will explore themes of war and fear, the horror of power, and helplessness as we analyze the last three...

Altropos (The Fates) is Francisco Goya's interpretation of the myth of the Moirai, the three sisters who decide the life and death of mortals. He added in a fourth, male figure in his painting and a baby. The sisters inspect the thread...

Judith and Holofernes depicts a story from the Bible in which Judith and her maidservant behead the tyrant Holofernes. By removing the peripheral iconographies and focusing only on the violent action, Goya brings this story into his...

John Green is teaching history again. This time, we're looking at the history of Europe in 50 episodes. We'll start at the tail end of the so called Middle Ages, and look at how Europe's place in the world has developed and changed in...

In 1550, art historian Giorgio Vasari noted in his book on Renaissance artwork that, "Leonardo undertook to execute, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife." But there was dispute about Mona Lisa's true...

In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. The theft drew more attention to the portrait at the same time that photography brought copies of the image to people all around the world. This surely raised the Mona Lisa's...

Why do Mona Lisa's eyes seem to be looking at us, no matter where we stand? The answer has to do with a set of meticulous artistic choices that da Vinci used for this portrait. Learn how Leonardo da Vinci used the verdaccio,...

Leonardo da Vinci spent a lot of time dissecting cadavers and studying the structure of muscles in the body. He had a particular interest in how emotions are translated into expression using the facial muscles. He was also interested...

Mona Lisa's stature and expression seem normal today, but were rather groundbreaking at the time. Portraits of Italian women usually depicted them in profile or looking down. Never looking at the audience as da Vinci does with Mona...

Leonardo da Vinci once said that "art is never finished, just abandoned." Art, science, and the natural world were not separate subjects for da Vinci. He was a man who never stopped learning and it seems fitting that we never seem to...

Or rather, what is she not wearing? Mona Lisa's simple clothing and lack of jewelry ensure that viewers focus on the face, rather than her clothing. How many copies were made of the Mona Lisa? Learn how Leonardo da Vinci used the...

In this video I look at Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. Nobody painted Hell quite like Bosch. What we think of as Hell, and certainly what Bosch thought of as Hell is not based on the bible....